Hacking Rumor is False

Recent rumors that Bungie.net has been hacked, and that your personal data has been compromised or stolen, are utterly false. Bungie.net has not been hacked, and frankly, there's nothing to hack. Bungie.net's database does not contain any of your personal information other than your Gamertag and Halo 2 stats.

As with any personal information, you should guard yours carefully, never give your passwords or other security information to anyone trying to solicit it. Bungie staff and personnel will never ask you for that kind of information, because we don't have any business using it. Please ignore any claims to the contrary and try not to spam up the forums talking about it. Bungie.net has not been hacked. The end. Major Nelson is giving out the official PR line over on his site here: Gawd bless you Major Nelson.

This week we talk about AI and graphics in the Campaign, and talk about the thing on everyone's minds today - the announcement and revelation of the Halo Legendary Edition. Lots of froth and panic inside. Enjoy!

Bungie entered the Rumble Pit this week to play a Humpday against a bunch of Microsoft employees with demanding jobs and busy lives, thereby avoiding our biggest pet peeve: Humpday opponents who are good.

We got power back, which means the Weekly Update now has images and a few nuggets of information in here for folks looking forward to the forthcoming public beta, and a revelation or two about what options will be available.

Halo 2 Vista Update

Hired Gun, the Microsoft team responsible for bringing Halo 2 over to Windows Vista, posted a blog update at IGN today. In this latest post you can read about the work they're doing on the new Live achievements being added to the game.

Halo 2 is still coming to Windows Vista later this year courtesy of the Microsoft internal team known as "Hired Gun." To read the latest game development updates, keep an eye on the IGN blog website. This latest entry is all about achievements - something that's new and exclusive to the Windows Vista version of the game. Check out the story HERE.

Welcome to another Bungie Weekly Update, where we keep you apprised of stuff happening in the creation of Halo 3. This week, animation, grass, water, weather, weapons and more. And Sketch pops in with a little hot dish of Halo 2 mappery. Full Story

Another in our continuing and in-depth looks at the weapons of Halo 3. This time we expose a dual wieldable weapon, designed exclusively for Halo 3. The Brute Spiker. A nasty, vicious, shredding horror used primarily by Brutes. Learn to love it now. And make sure you have QuickTime installed...

New Poll in the Forums!

We just put a highly invasive and nosy poll in the Forums - asking if you bought your Xbox console just for Halo, or for some other reason. Which would be stupid, obviously. Anyway, go rock the vote in the polls HERE!

We're basically spying on you to see how much you love or don't love Halo.

Stats db maintenance

Halo 2 stats are offline for quick maintenance

We're installing a brand new database server to host the Halo 2 stats database (and future stuff as well!) so please bear with us as we turn off stats for a while during this transition. It shouldn't take too long.

Halo Comic Announcement

Our good friends at Marvel made a couple of nifty announcements regarding the upcoming (and as-yet, untitled) Halo comic series, and although they haven't set a date yet, they did reveal that the artist and writer paired for the project are Alex Maleev and Brian Bendis, respectively.

Their work on Marvel projects including Daredevil and Ultimate Spider-Man has made them comic book legends, and Bungie is proud to be working with such a talented team. You can read (not much) more about the partnership HERE at Marvel's site. We'll bring you more news as the series develops and we look forward to sharing what's going to be an amazing extension of the Halo fiction and universe.

Give Voice to Your Charitable Spirit

Bungie has donated a cameo voice role to Hollywood Arts, a charity that reaches young homeless people through the arts, including video games, film, TV and more. The charity is a very practical one that teaches young people valuable skills and directly attempts to get them off the streets and into productive employment.

The cameo is for Halo 3, and the timeframe is tight, although the “wit” who wrote the eBay copy originally joked that if you don’t make the session in time, you’d have to end up in Halo 4. Note that was NOT an announcement, but rather a sad clunker of a gag. However, it’s all for a good cause, so if you’ve got pockets as deep as your voice, then head over to the eBay auction HERE and remember, we’re not running this auction, Hollywood Arts is. Through eBay. But it’s your chance for legendary status.

More of an update than last week! This time we have special guests in
the studio, angry princesses on the rampage, tidbits about weapons and
environments, and lots of info about the new matchmaking changes.

Bungie entered the Rumble Pit this week to play a Humpday against a bunch of Microsoft employees with demanding jobs and busy lives, thereby avoiding our biggest pet peeve: Humpday opponents who are good.

Interesting update this week, with the first ever look at the new imagery designed to tease and promote Halo 3 and a quick once-over of the current multiplayer control scheme. Forum speculation meltdown, imminent.

Phases one and two of the Halo 3 beta registration are now closed. However, many questions remain about the beta itself as well as further chances to get in. Here, we do our best to answer those questions.

Lionhead Visits Bungie, Meets Jerome

Lionhead Studios' Sam Van Tilburgh has published an article on Lionhead's site detailing his visit to MGS and Bungie Studios. It's a great read. Unfortunately, Jerome threatened to go Van Damme on Van Tilburgh, so he only got so far as the lobby.

2007 World Domination Clan Wars Tournament

Clantacular.com is releasing the Clan Wars World Domination Map Based Tournament! Can your clan dominate the world? Can your clan defend off
multiple clans plotting to over throw your claimed countries? Watch the
map change as clans overtake the world!

Like a long chess match between clans on a detailed map of the world
including islands! Defend your claimed countries, attack neighboring
clans! Partner with ally clans and help over throw the bigger regions!
See Clantacular.com for more details, first regional battles begin this
week! Registration is now open. First matches begin this week!

Hail to the Chimp

Wideload Games, founded by Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian and with a staff that includes a couple of former Bungie employees, has announced its next game: Hail to the Chimp. You can get more information on the title from the game's newly launched site.

If you're not familiar with Wideload, then you should check out their site and their previous game, Stubbs the Zombie Rebel Without a Pulse.